Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Stop Main Monsanto Organizers And Protesters Groups

Twenty years after the controversial introduction of unlabeled and
untested genetically engineered foods and crops, opposition to GMOs
(Genetically Modified Organisms) and Monsanto has created one of the
largest netroots-grassroots movements in the U.S.

There are
arguably more important issues facing us today than the battle against
Frankenfoods. The climate crisis and corporate control over the
government and media come to mind. But the rapidly growing anti-GMO
Movement illustrates the powerful synergy that can develop from the
combined use of social media, marketplace pressure and political action.
Recent developments in this sector indicate that out-of-control
corporations, media, politicians and the proverbial “one percent” can be
outsmarted and outmaneuvered. And quite possibly defeated.

In
the wake of high-stakes multi-million dollar GMO labeling ballot
initiatives in California in 2012, and Washington State in 2013, an army
of organic food and natural health activists have put Corporate America
and the political elite on the defensive. We’ve demonstrated that
aggressive populist issue-framing; unconventional “inside-outside”
coalition-building; marketplace pressure; and online list-building,
mobilization and fundraising - strategically channeled into local and
state-based political action - can begin to even up the odds between
David and Goliath.

Here are five strategic lessons from the
ongoing battle against GMOs in the U.S, lessons that may be applicable
to a broad range of political issues.

1.Aggressive populist issue-framing works.

The desire to know what’s in our food, coupled with a growing concern
for food safety and a distrust of large chemical companies, the mass
media, Congress and federal regulatory agencies, is a hot-button issue
that unites the majority of Americans - Democrats, Republicans, Greens,
Libertarians and Independents alike.

Forty percent of consumers
believe that unlabeled genetically engineered foods and crops are
unsafe. Another 40 percent are unsure. These numbers terrify large
supermarket chains, biotech companies and food corporations. So does the
notion that states such as Washington, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont
will soon require mandatory labeling of GMOs - which will likely drive
these controversial foods and crops off the market, just as labeling
laws have already done in Europe.

Anti-GMO campaigners have
gained the support of millions of consumers and voters by framing food
safety as a populist issue. And by relentlessly and aggressively
challenging the opposition – big-name companies that include Monsanto,
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé, General Mills and others.

After 20 years of grassroots public education and advocacy, the organic
and natural health movements, led by a hybrid coalition of non-profit
public interest groups, such as the Organic Consumers Association and
Food Democracy Now, and green businesses, including Mercola.com, Dr.
Bronner’s, and Nature’s Path, are approaching something like critical
mass.

Over 100 million U.S. consumers are now regularly
shopping for organic and natural foods, nutritional supplements and
other products, giving rise to a rapidly growing $80 billion-a-year
market for organic and natural products. One of the most important
accomplishments of the right-to-know, anti-GMO movement has been to
unite the advocacy and fundraising efforts of non-profit groups and
health and green-minded for-profit businesses. After 20 years of often
operating on shoestring budgets, activist groups (the “outsiders”) are
now increasingly joining hands with a number of profitable
organic/green/Fair Trade businesses (the “insiders”). This
inside-outside strategy has managed to raise a not insignificant war
chest of almost $20 million to support the state GMO labeling ballot
initiatives in California and Washington in 2012 and 2013, while
simultaneously pressuring major brands, such as Whole Foods Market,
Trader Joe’s and Chipotle, to embrace GMO labeling.

At the
same time activist groups with a more radical message (“outsiders”) are
learning that you must, for maximum impact, work with more moderate
groups (the “insiders”), and vice-versa. This ecumenical
“inside-outside” strategy has allowed the more radical organic and
natural health groups and scientists to highlight the alarming human
health and environmental hazards of GMOs, and carry out boycotts, street
demonstrations and direct action, while the less radical campaign
groups and coalitions meanwhile appeal to a more moderate demographic
with the mainstream message that consumers have the right to know what’s
in their food.

3.Marketplace pressure and political action must go hand-in-hand.

Anti-GMO campaigners have now learned that marketplace pressure and
political action go hand-in-hand. It’s not enough to just vote with your
pocketbook for organic and non-GMO foods and products, to reward good
companies and brands and punish the bad ones. We must get political, and
vote for a healthy, climate-friendly food and farming system in the
voting booth as well. If we want to drive GMO foods off the market, we
must not only walk our talk in the marketplace and in our everyday
lives, but also “get political” and mobilize our base to get involved in
legislative battles and political campaigns.

One important
consequence of marketplace pressure and boycotts is their potential to
gradually divide our opponents. In the case of the anti-GMO movement,
we’ve begun to drive a wedge between the biotech/industrial agriculture
corporations, and their erstwhile allies, food manufacturers and
supermarket chains. In the wake of the California GMO labeling ballot
initiative (Proposition 37), the Organic Consumers Association and our
allies launched a nationwide boycott of Traitor Brands, the organic and
natural brands whose parent corporations spent $20 million, along with
the biotech industry’s $30 million, to defeat Prop 37. We sabotaged
several dozen corporate Facebook pages, tarnishing brand names such as
Kashi, Cascadian Farm, Honest Tea, Naked Juice, Silk, Horizon, and Ben
and Jerry’s, to depress sales. This caused several large multinationals,
including Unilever, parent company of Ben and Jerry’s, and Mars, parent
company of Seeds of Change, to back off from anti-labeling activities.
Other retail and food giants, including Wal-Mart, fearing an escalation
in consumer activism, have begun lobbying the FDA to implement federal GMO food labels.

Anti-GMO campaigners are rapidly becoming more sophisticated in terms
of building broad coalitions, using online petitions to build large
email lists, pooling national email lists, segmenting national lists in
order to target state and local constituencies, using Facebook, Twitter
and other social media for network-building and mobilization, setting up
c4 lobbying organizations to complement c3 non-profit groups, and
raising funds online.

In the recent GMO ballot initiative
campaigns in California and Washington, as well as state legislative
campaigns for labeling in several dozen other states, right-to-know
supporters have been able to send coordinated or complementary email
messages to over 10 million people at once. Over the past 12 months
groups like the Organic Consumers Association, Mercola.com, Food
Democracy Now, Natural News, Alliance for Natural Health, Center for
Food Safety, Just Label It, Environmental Working Group, Cornucopia,
Friends of the Earth, CREDO, and MoveOn have been able to send out
anti-GMO or pro-labeling messages to literally millions of consumers and
voters on a regular basis, generating thousands of grassroots
volunteers, organizing thousands of local events and protests, and
raising over $20 million, mainly in small donations. The anti-GMO
movement may not have the deep pockets or the advertising and PR clout
of the biotech and Big Food lobby when it comes to the corporate media,
but we are rapidly developing our own mass media on the Internet and
Facebook.

5.Local and state political action is more effective than campaigns that target federal laws and lawmakers.

The anti-GMO movement, like other social change movements, has learned
the hard way that corporations and the wealthy elite control not only
the mass media, but the federal government, Supreme Court, and
regulatory agencies such as the FDA, USDA, and EPA. After decades of
sending petitions and lobbying the White House, Congress and the FDA, to
no avail, it has become clear that the political elite, including
President Obama, care more about their wealthy campaign contributors
than they do about their constituents, including the 93 percent who,
according to a recent New York Times poll, support mandatory labeling of
genetically engineered foods.

As a consequence the anti-GMO
movement has moved its focus away from the unfavorable terrain of
Washington D.C., and instead turned its attention to marketplace
pressure, and state, county and local political campaigns, especially
ballot initiatives. Citizen ballot initiatives are legal in 24 states
and approximately 1,000 counties and municipalities. This form of direct
democracy gives voters the power to enact labeling laws, bans or
regulatory and zoning restrictions on biotech corporations and Big Ag,
bypassing indentured politicians and federal bureaucrats. A number of
California and Washington State counties over the last decade have moved
beyond just labeling to outright bans on GMO crops, thanks to
citizen-driven local political action. In 2014, four Oregon counties
will have ballot initiatives calling for bans on GMO crops.

Win
or lose in Washington State on November 5, the anti-GMO Movement has
evolved into a savvy army of grassroots activists who are committed to
the ongoing battle to reclaim our food and farming systems, part of a
larger battle to transform the entire political and economic system.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may
not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the
source.

Help stop Main Organizers And Protesters Groups Like Hongkongwillie with
his silent movement and underground support. It is from popular groups
from Hollywood who support his art. The funds then are funneled to these
groups. Propaganda such as this link have a negative impact on Major
Growers,Major Horse Operation,and Cattle Operations. Help Stop
Hongkongwillie.

Read this, tells the truth, Hongkongwillie and his propaganda will not work.

http://redwigglersforsale.blogspot.com/2012/04/compost-tampa.html
The Hidden agenda about Compost Manure from Hongkongwillie. Its been
discovered Hongkongwillie and his supporters have funded secretly many
projects the are propaganda. Its the ultra liberal Hollywood crowd,the
sinful x rockers of his communistic hippie era . Take a look,Monsanto
has done great projects. Most if not all of the info against Monsanto is
unfounded. Why would Hongkongwillie an a group unhanded secretly fund
,thousands of unreported moneys. Look at the prices of his crap art.
Six figures. Junk art could fit this so well. The dump he live on as a
poor slum kid is where he should stay. This Food Prize Will Stop
Hongkongwillie

Help stop Main Organizers And Protesters Groups Like Hongkongwillie with
his silent movement and underground support. It is from popular groups
from Hollywood who support his art. The funds then are funneled to these
groups. Propaganda such as this link have a negative impact on Major
Growers,Major Horse Operation,and Cattle Operations. Help Stop
Hongkongwillie
Read this link what crap he prints.

Even though America’s farmers are among the most productive and
efficient in the world, hunger is still a significant problem in
America. Nearly 15 percent of all rural households are regularly without
food – that’s around 3 million households in the very communities where
much of the world’s food supply is raised. In addition, one out of
every six people goes hungry regularly in the United States.